We use cookies on our website

Thank you for visiting a Hand Picked Hotels website.

Please be aware that Hand Picked Hotels uses cookies to improve your experience. Cookies are files which are issued by a web server to be stored by a web browser that contain information relating to website usage.

We use cookies for the following purposes: (i) measuring the performance of our website; (ii) making a reservation; (iii) enabling marketing activity, including on other websites.

Our usage of cookies

Measuring the performance of our website and making a reservation:

We use Google Analytics cookies to analyse activity on this website and produce reports about its performance. This is for statistical purposes only and customers remain anonymous in this process. Google stores this information in accordance with their own privacy policy which may be found at http://www.google.com/privacypolicy.html. Cookies are also used as part of the reservations process, to ensure that your booking is successfully completed.

These cookies are automatically switched on when you visit one of our websites, and this cannot be changed. You can disable cookies in your web browser and this will not prevent you from using our website but will stop you making a reservation and certain functionalities may be restricted.

Enabling marketing activity, including on third-party websites:

Cookies are also used to enable and measure marketing activity such as email marketing and online advertising. As part of these activities, we may use information stored about the web pages you visit to provide you with more relevant offers, personalised ads or content in the future. We also pass this information on to selected third-party websites so that they, in turn, can offer you more relevant offers based on your interests.

Cookies used to enable marketing activity, including on third-party websites are not automatically switched on although we believe that these provide a useful service to you. Please indicate below whether you agree for us to switch on cookies to enable these marketing activities

Share

Venue

Categories

Tags

History of Ettington Park Hotel

With the River Stour weaving its way through the estate, Ettington Park is a spectacular neo-Gothic mansion situated six miles from Stratford-upon-Avon in the picturesque Stour Valley.

The Shirleys, one of Warwickshire’s oldest families, owned Ettington for many years. Their lineage can be traced back over a thousand years. There is also archaeological evidence that there has been human habitation in the area for at least 2,000 years. It is very much possible that a Roman villa once existed on the site of the Ettington Park Hotel, which since that time has undergone many transitions.

When the old manor house was demolished, it was replaced with a newer and smaller house which was rebuilt from salvaged materials. In 1935, the mansion became a nursing home and was used as a camp for prisoners of war during World War II; for a brief period it was also a club. A fire in 1979 did a lot of damage to the building and it was locked up for three years and deteriorated badly.

In 1983, the house, along with the land, was leased to the Isis Hotel Company and a restoration programme worth millions of pounds was undertaken to return the mansion to its old glory. Ettington Park then officially opened as a luxury hotel. It is now managed and operated by Hand Picked Hotels Ltd. The former owners, the Shirley family, still regularly visit their former abode and they continue to maintain ownership of the land in the surrounding areas.

Ettington Park Hotel has long had a reputation for being one of the most haunted hotels in the UK – it was even named as such by the AA. Guests have reputedly seen an old woman in Victorian clothing walking along the conservatory entrance and several people are said to have witnessed the ghost of a man and his beloved dog wandering in the library and vanishing quickly.